Offering, receiving and facilitating a bribe

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Question: [What is] the manner in which one should repent [to Allaah] from paying a bribe, and will the repentance be accepted if it is sincere; And what about the money, what should I do with it – [bearing in mind] I have already taken it from this bribe?

Response: Bribery is illegal, and is an evil [form of] earning; cursed is the one who pays it, and cursed is the one who takes it, and cursed is the one who pursues it, and mediates in [such transactions]; and this has been mentioned in an authentic hadeeth, from his ﷺ saying:

«Allaah has cursed the one who offers a bribe, and the one who takes it, and the one who facilitates [it]»

– and he is the one who mediates [in such transactions] – and all of them are cursed.

And the curse [which is attached to this misdeed] is something which renders this act a major crime [and] it is [considered] a grave sin from the major sins.

So the taking of the bribe is a grave sin from the major sins, and whoever falls into it is required to repent from it, and whatever he has [left] of the money which he has taken from the bribe – he is required to rid himself of it by giving it to the poor and destitute as a means of ridding himself of it, and not from a viewpoint of charity.

However, it should be considered as money which has been lost [and found] – that which has no owner, in which case he uses it for righteous ends, and gives it to the needy, poor and destitute – and along with that he repents to Allaah سبحانه و تعالى.


Translation originally published on 24 March, 2015.

Graduate of the Islaamic University of Madeenah, having completed the Arabic Language programme at the Institute of Arabic Language before progressing to the Faculty of Sharee'ah, from which he graduated in 2004. He currently resides in Birmingham, UK.